or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
May 30, 2011
This Is Not a Form of Brainwashing. This Is Not a Form of Brainwashing.
Happy Memorial Day.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at May 30, 2011 01:06 PMOT, but Billmon is back at Moon of Alabama
Posted by: hc at May 30, 2011 03:01 PMThe video is satire, but here's something factual, from our friends at Wikipedia:
The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy (1855–1931), who was a Baptist minister, a Christian socialist, and the cousin of socialist utopian novelist Edward Bellamy (1850–1898). Bellamy "viewed his Pledge as an 'inoculation' that would protect immigrants and native-born but insufficiently patriotic Americans from the 'virus' of radicalism and subversion."
Bellamy's original Pledge read as follows:
I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
The Pledge was supposed to be quick and to the point. Bellamy designed it to be recited in 15 seconds. As a socialist, he had initially also considered using the words equality and fraternity but decided against it - knowing that the state superintendents of education on his committee were against equality for women and African Americans.[8]
Posted by: mistah charley, ph.d. at May 31, 2011 11:30 AMThat ritalin closer had me in stitches, but I love the whole thing. However, I will resist the temptation to reread anything about utopian socialism, the Fabians, Bertrand Russell, Gandhi, Jane Austin Addams, or Elise or Kenneth Boulding. But I will read everything mistah charley has to say, as well as what he recommends, even if he recommends Duncan or Caruso.
And that Billmon is a smart fella too.
Posted by: N E at May 31, 2011 06:14 PMIf you are referring to b at moon of alabama, I believe that's bernhard not billmon.
Posted by: Emma at June 1, 2011 10:14 AMSpeaking of Moon of Alabama, supra, and of the Fukushima disaster, as we were in recent weeks, there's a post at Moon of Alabama that summarizes some aspects of the situation, which, it is now revealed, was immediately obvious to those in the know as being much worse than the public was being told. The whitewashing of the disaster is analogous to brainwashing, in a way.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2011/05/where-b-was-wrong-on-fukushima.html
The author of the piece, Malooga, asserts expertise in oil refinery operations and their associated industrial accidents, different in technical detail but analogous in depth of complexity to nuclear power plants. Nuclear power is intrinsically unsafe, he asserts.
Posted by: mistah 'MICFiC' charley, ph.d. at June 1, 2011 03:27 PMThe Human Race is intrinsically unsafe. Even as a child while being told to get under my desk during the alerts, I've thought basically, Its like shooting dice. YOU ingest so much ionizing electromagneticaly radioactive particulates till, one day,???? Where the BRAINWASHING COMES IN IS this computer is most likely plugged into a nuke power plant somewhere, and I'm alright with that enough to stay on line.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at June 1, 2011 04:02 PMN.E. What's wrong with socialist writings?
Posted by: Jenny at June 3, 2011 12:19 AM
